In the past few years, the number of women carrying concealed weapons has drastically increased – up a whopping 89% from 2009! The ability of women to protect themselves from criminals by carrying concealed is invaluable, and we suggest every woman utilize their rights under the 2nd Amendment to arm themselves. Although women’s clothing makes it much more difficult to carry concealed, the ever-growing availability of subcompact concealables as well as comfortable holsters is making it much more doable. Check out the below infographic sent to us by one of our readers and let us know what you think in the comments!

I came across this great infographic a few days ago and wanted to share it with those of you haven’t seen it yet. Readyholster.com did a great job pulling these facts together and making an incredible infographic that summarizes crime rates by state, categorizes types of crime per day, and even some information on home invasions in the U.S. Let us know what you think in the comments!

As we all know, California is a state that is populated with crazy people. What most Americans don’t realize is that when you’re declared mentally incompetent in another state, they just ship you off to California to fit in.

Recently, while looking at guns online, I stumbled across an article that shows even some of the gun owners in California are crazy… blasphemy, I know. The fact is, the gun laws in California are terrible and not only is concealed carry not allowed, but open carry isn’t allowed either.

However, open carry is legal as long as you have an unloaded gun. And the article I was reading mentioned several “open carry advocates” in California who walk around in public with an unloaded gun to try and advance their 2nd Amendment rights.

Let me say that again… they frequently walk around open carrying an unloaded gun.

Now, I’m all for supporting the 2nd Amendment and there are few things I regard as more important than my right to bear arms. However, I am also not an idiot. If you are carrying a gun on you it needs to be loaded. And please understand that the word “loaded” means having a round in the chamber.

Every time someone tells me that they don’t carry a round in the chamber because they feel it’s unsafe, I cringe. There’s a pretty good chance if you ever have to use your gun to defend your life that you’re going to need it fast. And that extra time it takes to chamber the round may be the difference between seeing your family again or not.

Also, the dirt bag criminal attacking you will probably have a loaded gun…

So why in the world would you put an unloaded gun against a loaded gun? (If you still think you shouldn’t have a round in the chamber, the bus to California will pick you up soon.)

In all seriousness, most of us have guns because we want to protect ourselves. And we should give ourselves every advantage we can. After all, we’re already going to be a step behind because we’ll likely be responding to an attack, so we shouldn’t do anything to slow ourselves down even further.

In addition to not slowing ourselves down, we should also not make ourselves a target in the first place. In other words, it is not a good idea to walk around the streets with an unloaded gun… and now I feel crazy for having to make this obvious point.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.

We are blessed to live in a time when we have more holster options than we could ever imagine. Fifty years ago folks weren’t so lucky and many of the holsters were cheap, fell apart easily, and were flimsy. But not anymore. Plus, a decent plastic holster can be had for about $40 and a leather holster for around $65 so there’s no excuse not to have a quality holster for your gun.

But despite all this, there are still far too many individuals who carry a gun without a holster. And I’m not just referring to “gangsters” or Plaxico Burris either. The fact is, earlier in the day I was reading about a Virginia man who was carrying his gun in his waistband without using a holster. He was in a store parking lot and was getting out of the car with his wife and four kids. As he was exiting the car he somehow shot himself in the leg with his gun and according to police, he bled to death in front of his family in a matter of minutes.

Another less tragic incident happened when a man was carrying a gun in his pocket without using is holster. He was at a restaurant getting ready to pay the bill when h reached in his pocket and shot himself in the leg.

I realize at times all human beings can be lazy…

But firearms safety is one area where you always have to be vigilant. If you need make a quick run to 7-11 for some bread don’t just grab your J-frame and throw it in your pants pocket. Take the time to get your pocket holster.

Also, remember, that if you’re carrying a gun in your pocket there should be nothing else in your pocket. In the example above, the man shouldn’t have been reaching in his pocket to pay the restaurant bill. There shouldn’t have been money or credit cards there.

And if for some reason I haven’t convinced you of the importance of using a holster…

I’m pretty sure this will change your mind. Last year an Arizona newspaper ran a story with the headline: Police Urge Holster Use After Man Shoots His Own Penis.

Apparently, a 27-year old man was securing his girlfriend’s pink handgun in the front of his pants. Things obviously didn’t go as planned as he fired a shot that went through his most important man part and traveled into his leg.

When the 911 dispatcher asked the girlfriend how he was doing she reported, “”He’s still coherent and everything but he’s bleeding quite a lot.” Thankfully the man lived, but who knows if he’ll ever be the same.

So from now on, remember to use a holster every single time you’re carrying a gun, no matter what. If you don’t, you might not just lose your “man part” but you might lose your life.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.

This Saturday, like many Saturdays in the Spring and Summer I am teaching a defensive pistol class. At these classes there’s something I try and emphasize over, and over, and over, which is what I believe is one of the most important aspects of gun training.

I’m not talking about safety, which is the most important aspect and gets covered before every class I do no matter if it’s a beginner class or an advanced class. And I’m not talking about trigger control or follow through.

In short, I’m talking about making my students think during the class.

Let me explain… Although competition shooting is a fun sport, it is not defensive firearms training. After all, many competitors have tricked out race guns, they know exactly what’s going to happen on each stage and as soon as they hear the buzzer they start shooting without having to do a great deal of thinking.

Obviously, that’s not close to reality at all, because in a gunfight you’re going to have no idea what your attacker is going to do. Also, in a gunfight you’ve got to be thinking so you don’t shoot into a crowd of people and hit an innocent bystander, or have any number of problems occur.

So how exactly do you get people to think?

Well, one of the best ways is sending people into a shoot house. Inside the shoot house you’ll have targets that are clearly marked as bystanders and you’ll have targets that are the bad guys.

If you’ve never done a shoot house scenario before you’ll be amazed at how much thinking is required and you’ll likely end up shooting an innocent civilian or two your first time out.

Another way to make people think is to use a target with several numbers on it such as the SEB target. The instructor can call out numbers telling the student to shoot at each one. You should also call out numbers that aren’t even on the target to see if people are paying attention.

I realize that going into a shoot house, or shooting different numbers isn’t totally reality based either. But it accomplishes the goal of making you think and not just having you run through a pistol course as a “drone” knowing exactly what is going to happen each time.

After all, your brain (that thing in your head which controls your thinking) is the most important thing you have in a gunfight.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.

If you’re one of winners of last week’s $640 million jackpot, then the answer to how many guns you should own is obviously as many as you can get your hands on. However, if you’re like me, and you don’t have unlimited financial resources then you must pick and choose which guns you should own.

To start, I recommend everyone have at least one handgun. After all, it’s rather difficult to carry concealed a rifle or a shotgun. And if you can truly only afford one handgun make sure that you buy quality so you only have to buy once. My handgun choices would be a Glock, Smith and Wesson M&P, or Springfield XD. I’d be willing to bet my life on any of those guns.

Next, I think it’s important to own at least one shotgun.

My shotgun of choice is the trusty Remington 870. This shotgun is built like a tank and will last you forever. If you can afford it, I recommend putting a flashlight, side saddle, sling, and magazine tube extension on your gun. Also, have plenty of birdshot, buckshot and slugs for your gun… but especially 00 buckshot.

Once you’ve filled your handgun and shotgun requirements it’s obviously critical for you to have a rifle or two. Why? Well, in my opinion, the rifle is the ultimate “end of the world” firearm. You need handguns for concealed carry. Shotguns work great for home defense. But the rifle is what you need when the stuff really hits the fan. And with the way this country is looking you never know when your life will depend on your rifle.

If I were you, I would start with a .22 such as the Ruger 10/22 and then get an AR-15.

However, before you throw 10 million bells and whistles on any of your rifles make sure that you first know how to properly manipulate and shoot them. In other words, all the scopes, slings and doodads in the world won’t help a bit if you can’t execute the fundamentals.

Once you have all of the guns above, then of course add to your collection. But I would make sure to have a handgun, shotgun and rifle, before I bought a ton of other guns. I do know plenty of folks that own a dozen or more handguns yet don’t own a single rifle or shotgun.

I also know plenty of folks that own a bunch of guns but don’t know how to use them. So instead of buying 10 handguns, maybe buy 1 or 2 and invest the rest of your money in training. After all, a handgun, shotgun, or rifle is pretty useless if you don’t know how to use it.

So I guess it all comes back to the fact that you should buy as many guns as you can afford, or as many as your wife will let you.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.

I’m visiting my in-laws in California right now. Earlier in the day my father in-law and I were in the car and he asked me what I thought of the AR-15 for a home defense gun.

Obviously, if it’s the only gun you have then that’s what you use. However, I told him that I don’t use an AR-15 for home defense. I have two different types of guns in my bedroom and each serves a specific purpose.

First off, I have my handgun (Glock 19.) I believe it’s important to have a handgun if you have to go investigate the “bump in the night” and you need to be able to easily maneuver around your house.

My house in particular has some narrow areas where a rifle is not ideal.

Of course, with your handgun you need to have a flashlight stored close by, such as a SureFire. When you’re investigating throughout the house you need to be able to identify your threat that way you don’t accidentally shoot a loved one who’s getting a drink of water in the middle of the night.

The other gun I have is my shotgun. (Remington 870.) I believe everyone needs a shotgun for the time when you know there’s an intruder breaking in the house and you’re going to hunker down in a bedroom and wait for police.

In other words, you’re not running around your house with the shotgun, you’re barricaded in your bedroom with the firearm pointed at the door in case the intruder tries to get into the room.

When it comes to ammo for my home defense shotgun I use 00 buck.

I know there are some folks who only use birdshot in their home defense gun and in my opinion that’s not a good idea. After all, if a person has broken into my home and they’re trying to kill me I want to make sure I stop them. I believe 00 buckshot will stop them and there’s certainly no guarantee that birdshot will even slow them down.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember when it comes to home defense guns and guns in general is to get plenty of training. Despite everything I’ve just said, if you’re a pro with an AR-15 and you aren’t comfortable with shotguns or handguns, then obviously use the gun that you’re most likely to hit your target with.

But for me, and for many of the folks I know, we have a handgun and a shotgun for home defense and our AR-15’s are more for an “end of the world” type scenario, which we truly hope will never happen.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.

The other day a fellow mentioned to me that he’d just taken a firearms training class and his instructor told him that he’s only allowed to use deadly force to protect himself and his immediate family members. He’s not allowed to protect anybody else.

This didn’t make much sense to the guy, so he asked me my thoughts and here’s what I told him. First off, remember that I am not a lawyer and I do not like lawyers, although I have a wife in law school. How’s that for irony?

Anyway, what my lawyer has told me is that I am allowed to use deadly force (if it’s justified) to protect another human being, no matter who it is. For instance, let’s say I go shopping at Wal-Mart tomorrow. As I’m walking to my car after I finish shopping I see a man walk up to a woman and start beating her.

The man continues to pummel her and then starts to strangle her and it appears he is going to kill her. Sure, I could stand by and do nothing, but I could also draw my gun and use it if he didn’t let go of the woman and if he continued to try and kill her.

For many folks, I think his is common sense.

After all, let’s say you’re out one night with your buddies at a restaurant. If a man with a knife starts stabbing one of your buddies would it really make sense for you to stand there and say, “Well, this isn’t my immediate family member and it isn’t me, so I guess I can’t save my friends life.”

Hopefully, those would be the last thoughts in your mind and you would be doing whatever you can to save your friend and stop the attacker. Another important thing that my lawyer has mentioned to me is that many people forget you can only use deadly force to protect a life and not a piece of property.

In other words…

If you walk out of your house and see someone in your driveway trying to kill your spouse, you can obviously do what you need to in order to stop that person. Perhaps you would draw a gun and the person would run off, but if they didn’t and continued to attack your spouse you would likely be forced to use the gun to save them.

However, if you walk out of your house and you see someone taking a baseball bat to your brand new car, you can’t draw your gun and starting shooting the person. The reason being is because your life (or another person’s life) is not in immediate fear for their life or serious bodily injury.

Of course, if you’re still confused about when you’re justified in using deadly force I would definitely go talk to a lawyer. Obviously, you don’t want to make any mistakes when it comes to when you’re allowed and not allowed to use a gun. Also, if you don’t have a lawyer contact the NRA and they’ll be able to recommend a person in your area.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.

Madison Rising (www.madisonrising.com) is a pro-American band whose latest cause is to help bring awareness to the relentless attacks on one of the most cherished rights granted in the Constitution: The right to keep and bear arms. On January 30th, the band released a video for their single “Right To Bear.”

The song and video have already generated considerable controversy regarding the Second Amendment and the ongoing issues of open and concealed carry gun laws around the country. The band encouraged their fans to go out and purchase Starbucks coffee on Valentine’s Day when the The National Gun Victim’s Action Council (NGAC) lead an effort of a national boycott of Starbucks Coffee to try to force a change in the company’s “open carry” gun policy at hundreds of its retail locations.

“There’s a reason it’s the second amendment,” continued Dave Bray(Navy Vet, NRA member), the band’s lead singer. “It’s not the ninth, it’s not the fourth; it’s the second. And at the end of the day, it’s the only thing protecting the first. We’re talking last line of defense. The authors of the constitution knew exactly what they were doing and these rights are just as important now as they were two centuries ago. It doesn’t matter how technologically advanced a society may become. Human nature never changes.”

The band’s Right To Bear video prominently features several high profile anti-gun politicians such as Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder, John Kerry, and Nancy Pelosi, as well as key pro-gun advocates like NRA president David Keene. The band openly endorses national right to carry laws.

It’s not often we come across talented artists who are also advocates for the 2nd Amendment. Please support our friends of Madison Rising by visiting their website or purchasing their single, Right to Bear Arms:

I love taking shooting courses. In fact, when I’m not teaching my own courses, I try and attend other folks training as much as I can. The good news is, there are a lot of good instructors in this country so it’s not tough to find a class near you.

However, if you choose to take one of these classes whether it’s local or at a larger training school such as Gunsite or Front Sight, I encourage you not to make the mistake that I see the majority of shooters make.

So what is the mistake?

It’s not training the way they regularly carry concealed on the street. In other words, when I’m carrying concealed I’m usually wearing jeans and a T-shirt. Unless I’m going to church or doing consulting, I try and avoid a suit at all costs. Therefore, when I go to a gun school I am dressed in jeans and a T-shirt.

What kills me is the folks I see who show up in tactical pants and other tactical gear who look like they’re about to join Rambo on his next raid. Now, if by the odd chance they wear that gear on a regular basis, then by all means, train that way. But if I had to guess, I’d say they don’t go grocery shopping decked out from head to toe in 5.11 gear.

However, the way a person dresses is just the beginning. When I attend a gun class I want to shoot well just as much as the next person does. But I always draw from concealment. After all, since that’s how I always carry my gun, drawing from concealment is the proper muscle memory I want to develop.

Well…

I have a lot of friends who attend their firearms training wearing an outside the waistband holster. Why do they do this? Because they’re quicker on the draw and feel they do better during the timed shooting drills. Yes, this may be true, but since they carry concealed on a regular basis, practicing with an outside the waistband holster obviously makes no sense.

Lastly, and probably the most ridiculous thing I see is the fellows who show up with huge guns that are clearly not their concealed carry guns. I realize it’s fun to shoot all types of guns, but if you’re going to spend a lot of money attending a pistol course, train with the gun you regularly carry. Take your non-carry guns to the shooting range and other places, but go to the schools with the gun you bet your life on.

As for me, the gun that comes with me to all the training I do is my Glock 19, because that’s my concealed carry gun. I know you may be thinking this is a lot of common sense, but I’m willing to bet that at the next training you attend, the majority of folks will not be training as if it’s “real life.” I just hope you’re not one of them, and that you force yourself to wear regular street clothes… to draw from concealment… and to bring your concealed carry gun with you.

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Jason R. Hanson is a former CIA officer. He’s also an NRA Certified Instructor and the author of The Covert Guide to Concealed Carry: Confessions of a Former CIA Officer. Jason believes there are few things in life as important as being able to protect yourself and your loved ones. That’s why he’s giving away a free report titled, “Insider Secrets of Buying Your First Concealed Carry Firearm” at www.ConcealedCarryAcademy.com.